The Value of a Great Research Website

 I’m sharing about a website I’ve used quite a lot over the years since I started writing historical romance. It’s for the Central Pacific Railroad, and the URL is cprr.org.

I’m the type of historical reader who wanted to know about the details of daily life for the people in the story. I’ve read too many stories that included vague statement like “The train trip lasts five days and she arrived at ten a.m. looking fresh as a daisy.” Those books I set aside. As a logical human who has traveled in real life, I know planes can take off at two a.m. (I booked one of those flights on a cheap ticket website) or a train can arrive at a small town at eleven at night. Those inconveniences can act as added tension in a novel.

This site is great for writers, as well as the general public, because of the historical photographs of the construction of the railroad, the picturesque locations, and maps of the actual routes of where the railway traveled, including elevations. Advertisements enticing travelers to go on excursions can be accessed. One fact that surprised me was some timetables listed connections with foreign travel to China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. And this is in 1876!

What I have used extensively are the timetables for the various lines, which allow me to create realistic situations my characters experience. I can plan the travel route, using the names of the stops (some of these cities no longer exist) but, more importantly, the number of times the train stops. Hard to imagine anyone getting any sleep if the train makes eight to ten stops in an eight-hour period.

Ever thought about what westward travelers did once they encountered the Mississippi River? Or what happened when that traveler reached the end of the railroad line but still needed to reach a location fifty miles farther west or north? The timetables often list connections to other rail lines or stagecoach lines, in addition to listing when meals were served and how much luggage was allowed.

A visit to this site will spark questions you didn’t even know you had.

I used this resource extensively in my second Lockets and Lace story titled Taming A Scandal.

Socialite Mercia Saunders is traveling to her brother’s Texas ranch to let the gossip settle from a Philadelphia scandal. Pinkerton agent Dominic Prentice is pairing surveillance on the spoiled lady and hunting down stolen jewelry. Will the confinement of a cross-country train ride toss them together and ignite sparks?

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Researching Pinkerton Agents

When I started researching the Pinkerton National Detective Agency for the hero of a story, I had no idea what was a reasonable amount of time for an agent to spend on a case. Or if traveling from Rhode Island to Texas was believable. First, I consulted non-fiction titles that detailed Allan Pinkerton’s personal detective history that led into creating his agency. One book I read, Inventing the Pinkertons by S. Paul O’Hara was really slanted toward the economic and political conditions of the times. (rather dry) Then I read The Pinks by Chris Enss, which showcased the famous female detectives and the types of roles they performed for the company.

Allan Pinkerton circa 1861 credit Wikipedia

I dug deeper and, to my delight, discovered that Allan Pinkerton himself published reports of various cases. A first-hand account of events is always the most reliable and valuable source for research. The added bonus is that these reports read like fiction. Possibly he learned his writing skills because he released a couple dime novels based on cases. But he also wrote factual accounts of the timelines, events, agents involved, and the methods used. I was so surprised at how dedicated he was to fulfill the clients’ needs.

One story I read is titled The Spiritualists and The Detectives, and it related how two agents went undercover and worked for weeks to gain the confidence of the spiritualist who had a lawsuit against their client, hoping she’d admit the case was a fraud. The woman who read palms and gave séances claimed the rich client promised to divorce his wife and marry her. She sued him for breach of promise. When the spiritualist suspected someone was watching her, (which was happening because she’d rented rooms in her house to the two men who posed as salesmen) she jumped on a westbound train and ended up in Missouri, when another lawsuit was pending. The agents followed her on the train, but replacements took over surveillance once she settled in Missouri.


Something spooked her again and she set off, meandering through Illinois and Indiana. A sheriff attempted to serve her with a subpoena to appear in one state’s court and she successfully avoided touching the document until the riverboat reached mid-river and she was within another state’s jurisdiction. The replacement agents suspected she was headed back to Rochester New York where the original ones first met her and advised they return. In total, the surveillance lasted almost four months before the court date was close enough the agents could serve her with an order to appear and keep her in town. She lost.


If you’re interested in reading about real cases, I also found these titles by Allan Pinkerton: The Somnambulist and the Detective, the Murderer and the Fortune Teller; The Spy of the Rebellion: Being a True History of the Spy System of the United States; Bucholz and the Detectives. The best thing is the books are part of the project where out-of-print titles are scanned and made available free.

I used the research in writing my novella titled Taming A Scandal, book 14 of Lockets and Lace series. Socialite Mercia Saunders is traveling to her brother’s Texas ranch to let the gossip settle from a Philadelphia scandal. Pinkerton agent Dominic Prentice is pairing surveillance on the spoiled lady and hunting down stolen jewelry. Will the confinement of a cross-country train ride toss them together and ignite sparks?



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